Admiral Nelsen

I think that's a feature of how we set up to be honest. He's shown that he can drive forward with the ball well enough over his time here, if we played 442 (which I appreciate nobody does anymore) or even 433 then we'd see him do that much more I think. To be clear, I'm not arguing that Travis gets into every team in the division. Teams going for the automatics will have better options, as will a couple of others. But there are some absolute plodders who play his position in this league - we've had our fair share at Ewood! - so I think saying he's average is seriously underplaying his ability and how easy it should be to replace him. I hope I'm wrong, obviously, and that Tavares and Baradji are a class above! But I'll believe it when I see it.

I expect these to improve as the season goes on (as Manning's Bristol City seemed to do last year) so this is probably a good time to play them. It seems like they're (another!) team that plays out from the back with defenders who aren't up to it, so hopefully we can take advantage of that.

Agree that they're well suited. I expect him to be a big hit there to be honest, but I'd also have expected him to be a big hit at Coventry. Or at Millwall if they managed to sign him last year. Or others if they had the money to spend. I think because he's a bit of a wind-up merchant and can be a pantomime villain, we can be in danger of overdoing what he brings/doesn't bring as an 'enforcer', and missing how good (at this level) his all-round game is. We saw it when he first came into the side and could immediately do what Evans and Smallwood could do as well as plenty more besides on the ball. We've had countless central midfielders in the last decade or so since we've been relegated, and Trav is one of at most two or three that don't have glaring weaknesses in his game.

Game of opinions, but I think this is selling him well short. If you were a team managed by a Russell Martin type (or even a JDT type, even though they're very different) then I can see how Travis isn't the sort you want. He's technically decent - much better than people give him credit for - but asking him to play one/two touch football isn't playing to his strengths. But if you want a classic box-to-box type, how many are better than Travis? I'd say he'd be a key player for at least half of the teams in this league (much in the same way he is for us).

Pears is absolutely fine as a Championship back up keeper. Definitely far too accident prone as a #1, but adequate as a stand in. We were happy to have him a few years back once Kaminski was injured. Unfortunately we then made the wrong call to let Pears keep the jersey and sell Kaminski, but that's hardly Pears fault! If we get offered genuinely decent money for him (seems unlikely) then you take it, but I certainly wouldn't want to be chasing him out of the club. Not least because it's not as though Toth has really proven himself either just yet, so it's not even just injury we need to be wary of.

I think an issue we have is you could probably take at least two from Good Enough (Toth, Alebiosu) and to be fair a couple from Not Good Enough too (Kargbo, Montgomery, maybe De Neve) and move them into the Unknown category. Which now constitutes a majority of the squad! We've well and truly rolled the dice this window. The law of averages suggests we'll probably get both successes and failures from this current crop, but we'd better hope there's at least four or five more in your good enough section come the spring or we'll be bang in trouble.

I'm pretty confident that, barring a very bad injury run, that there will be three worse teams than that squad. Beyond that, I don't think we can say it's competitive one way or another because we're heavily dependent on the new signings being up to it. They could be - and one or two are showing good early signs - but the Championship is such a relentless league. It worries me that so much of the squad could be physically struggling once we get past Christmas, and that's before making judgements about their quality.

I think a really big problem with Buckley is that he takes a while to get his rhythm. I've always been one that rated his ability and wanted him to kick on, but I don't think I can ever remember him coming on and changing a game. Similarly when he's had a spell out of the team and he gets his chance, his first game tended to be pretty underwhelming, where we see his under-hit passes and getting caught in possession. He has tended to get better when he is given a run of starts, but he's not going to get that here so it's best for all parties that he tries to get his career back on track. I really hope he manages it.

Rovers have posted pictures of him training with the group. No idea if he's fit enough to play at the weekend, but he's not on the treatment table.

Some teams are going to be really hard to judge, even for Championship standards. Sheff U will be one given the loans they lost (plus Ahmedozdic) without spending much yet. Norwich could finish almost anywhere with their player turnover.

Apparently it uses a mixture of match betting odds and Opta's 'Power Rankings', both of which themselves are basically products of historical results. So yeah, it's basically predicting this season by using last season's form.

Fabulous morning, couldn't have asked for much better before a ball was bowled. The loss of Woakes still means that we're probably not as ahead in the game as it feels just now.

Totally agree, although the one after he arrived was still very decent! Unlike Yorke himself who was dire once he downed tools. Easy to think that the partnership was a disaster for Rovers, but for a while it was great. Beating Spurs 4-0 at their place to get into Europe was an absolute delight.

Had he played every game that season - rather than missing about a third of it with niggles - I'm convinced we'd have been in the Champions League. Incredible player when we kept him on the park. It's difficult to compare Bellamy to a fully fit and firing Santa-Cruz, but I'd have them both a little ahead of Sutton, personally.

Not for me. Loved him when he was here but his weaknesses are too limiting.

No idea if he'll be an adequate replacement for Batth or not - I suspect not in the short term - but I agree it looks like a sensible signing. Hull fans seem to be on the fence about whether selling him is a good idea or not, but they all seem to think that we've got the better end of the deal if the £500k is right.

You're probably right. Although it could also be that VI likes playing very high tempo, pressing football and wants to make sure he has good depth in the engine room. I know at WBA he was well known for making big changes 60 mins into each game. Unlikely though if they actually cost near £2million apiece, and that's not just with lots of speculative add ons.

With difficulty! That's sort of my point. He's had three seasons where he's managed to play enough to be properly judged. One, with everything in his favour, he looked brilliant. Two, with everything going against him, he looked well short. What we can say is that he has obvious shortcomings with his game (mobility, accident prone on the ball. Although he can pick a pass when he gets it right). But as a Championship centre back, there are lots of players who you could put in that bracket who do perfectly well in the right set up. Because of injuries and him having a slightly weird career with the managers he's played under, we still don't know if Wharton would thrive in a more ordinary system, and we don't know how Ismael is going to get us playing next year. I wouldn't be quick to write him off, that's all I'm saying.

He did, but it caught up with him eventually. Largely because I think he basically has the same strengths/weaknesses as Wharton. I should say too that I'm not suggesting that Wharton's the better player, or that I don't rate Hyam. But I'm saying first that we shouldn't be too harsh in judging Wharton, because the vast majority of his appearances have either been i) in easy street in a back three where he looked great, or ii) where he looked very shaky in a system almost custom designed to leave him exposed. We've basically never seen him in a 'normal' set up for more than a few games here and there. Let's wait and see what Ismael wants. If he wants mobile defenders then his lack of pace will be a serious issue. But then again it's only really Carter who would get away with us layer a high line at present.

That short spell was the longest time he's spent in the side, isn't it? You're right than playing in a back three made his job easier, but then again there's probably not a manager in world football that would make his job harder than JDT. Zero protection from the midfield, playing on the half way line, being judged for your work with the ball as much as defending. If we're saying his good spell under Mowbray has caveats, then his struggles under JDT should have at least as much, if not bigger ones.

I'd put them both in a pretty similar bracket to be honest, in that they're both massively impacted by our style of play. They lack pace (this will likely be a huge issue for Wharton now) and can cause us problems if we're asking them to do too much with the ball. Both though, have looked really impressive at this level when they've not been asked to do what they don't have in their kit bag. I've always liked Wharton and I think the Eustace set up this year would have got a tune out of him had he been fit. I'd definitely like to keep him and see him stay fit and get back to his best, but if Ismael wants to play a high line then he's an accident waiting to happen. As are Hyam and Batth too, in fairness.

Perhaps they did. But we'd only have evidence for this if they were picking him over other decent options. Which he wasn't, because we didn't. There definitely are. In fairness to a lot of them (maybe not Lowe!) second division footballers are usually those who can look fine if you play to their strengths, and can look almost semi-pro if you don't. We've had heaps of them at Rovers - our current Head of Football Operations being one! And it's not even as though I think Hedges is without his good points. But he's played well over 100 games now and his numbers have been just as poor in a range of systems, from playing on the counter to more possession based.

To be fair Chaddy, that would only tell us something if they were picking him over decent players. The reason why he has played so much has had far more to do with the him having no decent competition - not his fault admittedly - than him deserving the shirt through his own form. Hedges has aspects to his game which are fine. His attitude is good. He's is reasonably athletic and a decent size which is more than you can say for most of our other attackers, and that helps in and out of possession. Him being left footed can balance the team etc. But his attacking output is abysmal for an attacking player. Really poor. I don't hate the idea of keeping him as a squaddie, but there will have been players in his position with as many goal involvements in a single game last season as Hedges managed in 42. Not acceptable I'm afraid.

Not fit to lace Holtby's boots in my view!

Lad is an excellent finisher. Didn't see any other aspect of his game which was up to scratch - be it through ability or attitude. Wish him the best, but he was the obvious casualty if we had to trim the squad by 1.